Copyright, Disclaimer & Terms of Use

This blog does not operate for commercial purpose, but focuses on referee education and information only.

If you feel that any content is belonging to you exclusively or is misplaced, please contact us immediately so that we can remove it!

This also counts for comments which restrict you in your dignity and liberty, which are abusive or insultive. Sometimes such types of comments are not directly seen by this blog's administrators. In order to make them be removed as soon as possible, you can contact us via mail (see above).

July 28, 2012

England, FIFA and surely the whole world of football (refereeing) are in deep mourning for Jack Taylor, referee of Munich's 1974 World Cup final between Western Germany and the Netherlands, who has passed away yesterday.

Having refereed more than a thousand league matches in England and more than 100 international matches, he entered FIFA Hall of Fame in 1999. Born in Wolverhampton in 1930, Taylor is until today one of ten English
officials having ever been in charge of a World Cup final.

David Elleray, Chairman of The FA Referees’ Committee, said: "The
refereeing world is desperately sad to hear of Jack Taylor’s death. Jack
was the third Englishman to referee a World Cup Final when in 1974 he
officiated in the Final between Germany and Holland, awarding a penalty
against the Germans before they had touched the ball."

Even Howard Webb emphasized his sorrow and described Taylor as a "true gentleman". Furthermore, he stated that Taylor had been an inspiration for him and many thousands of referees in
England and across the world.

Jack (actually John Keith) Taylor died at his Shropshire home on 27 July.

July 22, 2012

Commencing on 27 July 2012, London's 2012 Olympic Games are certainly the most captivating competition of the year due to its large variety of sports that will be followed by not less than four billions spectators (at 2008 Olympic Games Beijing, it was 4,4 billions over the world). Naturally, football may not miss so that FIFA will again attempt to provide an international showpiece, even though the tournament is not completely joined by the biggest football nations, which is however typical of this sort of tournament.

The football competition even starts on 25 July (women), respectively on 26 July (men).

A number of 16 teams have qualified for the final competition, mostly by having reached a certain stage at a specific youth tournament in their continental federation, while the women's tournament only contains 12 teams.

Consequently, FIFA has appointed 84 match officials to take charge of the 56 Olympic matches. I will however solely focus on the men's competition.
As Carol Anne Chenard's blog is revealing, the referees and assistant referees are getting full support by FIFA Referee Comissioner Massimo Busacca who is leading certain briefing sessions intending to create uniformity in the referees' behaviour and decisions. And the second message that is certainly conveyed by her blog is that the thrill of anticipation is rapidly accelerating.

July 14, 2012

Danny
Makkelie of the Netherlands has been chosen to referee the UEFA
European Under-19 Championship final between Spain and Greece at the
Lilleküla Stadium in Tallinn.

Speaking to UEFA.com ahead of
Sunday's showpiece, the part-time policeman said the appointment was the
realisation of an important ambition in his career. "When you are
chosen to go to a tournament like this your goal is to referee the
final," he said. "I have been presented with an opportunity to show
those who have placed their trust in me that I can successfully referee a
match of such importance and that my aim is to be a top referee in the
near future.

"I know that Portugal's Pedro Proença refereed the
2004 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final and he went on to take
charge of the UEFA Champions League and UEFA EURO 2012 showpieces, so
that is all the inspiration I need."

(c) Telegraaf

Explaining that refereeing
was "a calling" in his life, the 29-year-old from Dordrecht in the
Netherlands said that he has had a whistle in his hand from a young age.

"When
I was ten years old at school, the teachers used to ask us to referee
games of football or volleyball and I liked doing that," he said. "It
was a similar situation when I started to play for my local club.
Sometimes there was a shortage of referees for amateur matches so I
would volunteer. As the years passed, I saw that the players began to
accept me in my role and one day somebody suggested I apply to referee
with the KNVB [Royal Netherlands Football Association]."

Makkelie
accepted the advice and went on to become the youngest official to
referee an Eredivisie game on 19 September 2009 as Heracles Almelo took
on Sparta Rotterdam. He continued to make progress and officiated at
UEFA Europa League qualifying round games between FC Salzburg and SK
Liepājas Metalurgs and Club Atlético de Madrid and Strømsgodset IF.

So
far at this year's U19s Makkelie has taken charge of the group stage
encounters between hosts Estonia and Greece and England versus France
and he said that his time at the finals has presented an excellent
opportunity to learn and hone his skills.

"I have enjoyed the
tournament and have learned so much from the observers and also from my
colleagues here," he said. "The final will be one of the biggest games
of my career so far. The level of the players competing here is very
high and the final teams – Greece and Spain – are fantastic. Both teams
play with passion and are physically very strong so I think it will be a
very good game."

In Sunday's final, Makkelie will be assisted by
Yves de Neve of Belgium, Russia's Aleksey Lebedev and Swiss fourth
official Alain Bieri.

July 13, 2012

On the basis of marks awarded by our observers during the last season, World of Football Refereeing can finally offer an entire ranking of those referees who were joining UEFA Elite Group of referees in the past season 2011/12.

Our "Referee of the Season 2011/12": Pedro Proença (c) ZIMBIO

Pedro Proença of Portugal has unfolded to be last season's obvious number 1 in Europe. Appointed for 2012 UEFA Champions League final and 2012 UEFA EURO final at Poland/Ukraine, this result is surely not astonishing at all, but the finals are certainly not the only reasons for it, since his season in general was pretty impressive. Therefore, he is World of Football Refereeing's "Referee of the Season 2011/12".

The Portuguese is followed by a quatrain of excellent and promising future referees including Turkish official Cüneyt Çakır in the second place, Nicola Rizzoli from Italy being placed third and German official Felix Brych and Englishman Howard Webb nearly being dead even on 4 and 5.

Dutch official Danny Makkelie from Dordrecht in the Southern Netherlands has been nominated to take control over Sunday's 2012 UEFA Under19 EURO final between Spain and Greece at Tallinn's Lilleküla Stadium.

The 29 year-old former policeman, who now concentrates on refereeing and on an engagement within the Dutch federation KNVB, who will however soon continue his original work at a police department once a week, joined the Dutch Eredivisie roster in 2009. Since 2011, Makkelie is also a FIFA listed referee. At the start of 2012, he has been promoted by UEFA to their Second Group of referees.

At Estonia's competition, Makkelie took already charge of the first match of the Greek side against the hosts and furthermore a Group B clash on matchday 3 between France and England. In both matches, he did not issue any card.

Besides, he will be assisted by Belgian Yves de Neve, who has already gained experience in UEFA Champions League matches at Frank de Bleeckere's side, and also by Russian official Aleksei Lebedev. Alain Bieri of Switzerland completes the final appointment.

July 6, 2012

In the recent past, no other and comparably pivotal discussion in football is being dealt with to a similar extent and degree of attention in the media than the question of whether technical aids are to be implemented to detect goal respectively no-goal situations in modern football. Yesterday, IFAB and FIFA have commenced to set the course for a small revolution in football refereeing.

Current examples have fueled demands for a technological solution for this issue, namely when e.g. England was not given a clear goal at 2010 FIFA World Cup or when Ukraine suffered from the same kind of mistake at 2012 UEFA EURO Poland/Ukraine, even though an additional assistant referee observed the situation. At the same time, UEFA has still a huge resistance to goal-line technology (GLT) as they want to maintain the officials' responsibility and human appearance on the pitch. In addition, they repeatedly stated - mostly Platini did so - that referees were a part of the game who could make mistakes as players did.

After all, this argument must be considered as a thought-terminating cliché in the pure form so that it should be heavily weakened.

What are referees originally supposed to do? What is their task and by what measures are their skills or abilities evaluated? A referee makes approximately 350 decisions (per match) based on his impressions. FIFA Laws of the Game are like a paintbox, while the painting can be converted to the referees' interpretation and application of them. A good referee is one who makes good decisions respecting the Laws of the Game, but by his interpretation as well with regard to the match, its circumstances and its atmosphere. Is that possible regarding goal/no-goal decisions? No, it is not. The human eye is not designed for this task, for detecting whether the ball had crossed the line by centrimetres or even millimetres. Interpretation does not count in this sort of decisions, skills are not needed. It is even an inhumane kind of call, therefore, referees cannot be made responsible for mistakes, but in reality, they are made responsible, responsible for a task they cannot fulfill. Even world referees had to feel that.

Finally, IFAB have recognized this as well, so that yesterday's decision at Zürich should be regarded as a real milestone in football refereeing's history future football will surely benefit from - as long as the suggested technology will keep what it promises. Lutz Wagner, former Bundesliga referee and member of DFB referee committee has stated that the approved Hawk-Eye technology could be problematic in situations when players hid the cameras' areas of vicinity so that they then could not be able to gather the ball.

Therefore, the GoalRef technology could be the best solution, but of course, both have to be tested several times to be capable of making a clear judgment.

A certain phrase must be hence repeated: it is not about the "whether",
but about the "how", FIFA and IFAB have taken an immense step with
regard to that. In general, the echo within German Bundesliga and their coaches has been very positive; Bayern coach Heynckes' statement can be taken as an exemplary one: "That is a good decision which was long overdue. I hope that the modern football is spared from such mistakes by that [...], it is also very important that our referees receive certain help so that their difficult task is now a bit relieved."

Goal or no goal? Referees will soon no longer
have to decide themselves whether the ball has crossed the line or not
without technical assistance.

Following nine months of testing in
England, Germany, Hungary and Italy, at a special meeting in Zurich on 5
July, the International Football Association Board (IFAB) decided to
introduce goal-line technology into football. Of the eight companies
that took part in the first round of tests, only two systems – Hawk-Eye
and GoalRef – successfully completed the process and can now apply to
become FIFA goal-line technology licensees. FIFA has additionally established an official "FIFA Quality Programme" that can be considered as kind of governing body for the mentioned technical aids. They will be first deployed at 2012 FIFA Club World Cup Japan, later, they will be presented to a worldwide audience at 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup Brazil and 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil.

GoalRef system – magnetic field technology
The GoalRef system creates the radio equivalent of a light curtain. Low
magnetic fields are produced around the goal, and as soon as the ball,
which is fitted with a compact electronic device, fully crosses the
line, a minor change in the magnetic field is detected, thus allowing
the exact position of the ball to be established. If a goal has been
scored, an alert is transmitted to the match officials via a radio
signal within one second, with a message displayed on their watches and
via vibration.

Hawk-Eye system – goal-line camera technology
The Hawk-Eye system uses six to eight high-speed cameras set up at
different angles at each end to calculate the exact position of the
ball. The data from the cameras is then transferred to video software.
From this data, the system generates a graphic image (3D) of the ball's
trajectory. The match officials are informed of whether or not it was a
goal within one second. This system might be compared - also due to the fact that the name is equal - to a method applied in tennis for years.

Thereby, IFAB and FIFA with Joseph Blatter leading the way have made a
decision with a far-reaching and historical impact, perhaps the most
significant one concerning football (refereeing) since the
implementation of disciplinary cards 42 years ago. Hopefully, UEFA will follow this milestone decision.

July 3, 2012

Having closed with a Spanish 4-0 gala at Kyiv's Olympic Stadium against the Italian "squadra azzurra", UEFA EURO 2012 has certainly proven the vastly rising quality of European football with respect of tactical and technical abilities featured by parts of the sixteen participating teams, has furthermore produced winners, who have made history, but plenty of losers as well - also among the referees. World of Football Refereeing will retrospect three weeks of high-quality football (refereeing?) concerning multiple aspects.

The reviews will be split into different sections that will be published as we go along, starting today with a flashback on the additional assistant referees' appearances at this EURO.

The "extra eyes" did not see everything

Resulting from a decision made by UEFA in accordance with the International Football Association Board (IFAB) widely before the European Championship, it was the first international tournament for national teams ever executed with five match officials on the pitch. Additional Assistant Referees had been selected both as a means to encounter the ongoing discussion related to goal-line technology and as a support for the twelve teams that have acted in the past 31 matches. Their backing must have been thus big that Howard Webb and Jonas Eriksson strongly emphasized their pleasure about their attendance prior to the tournament. As UEFA's chief Michel Platini emphasized in several interviews given during the tournament period, a real technology is definitely not within sight, since introducing such a technology was "a historical mistake", so that the French is a decisive opponent of that: "I am totally against it. Let's have humans. I
remain consistent. It's not a question of goal-line technology - it's
the question of the beginning of technology in football. That I am
totally against it." The answer on the question of whether this attitude is as astonishing as Platini's recently communicated plans to split 2020 UEFA EURO to twelve cities in twelve different countries may be anyone's guess.

July 1, 2012

Portuguese
referee Pedro Proença will set the seal on a memorable season when he
takes charge of his fourth, and most important fixture, at UEFA EURO
2012 in Kyiv tonight. The 41-year-old also officiated the UEFA Champions
League final on Munich on 19 May and told UEFA.com that being awarded
the final at the Olympic Stadium is not only a privilege and an honour,
but the peak of his career.

(c) ZIMBIO

UEFA.com: Being awarded the UEFA EURO 2012 final must be very special for you?

Proença:
Yes, it's an honour to have this chance and to be invited. For any
referee this would be one of the best moments of his career and I really
feel privileged to have been asked, both for me and my team. It's a
sign of acknowledgement of the work we have done at this tournament so
it brings us happiness that has to be shared with the two finalists

.

UEFA.com: How does it feel having been awarded the UEFA Champions League final and the UEFA EURO 2012 final?

Proença:
This means I have finally reached my peak as a referee. Several factors
were involved in me getting here at my age and reaching the top level. I
feel really satisfied and privileged so tomorrow I will try to honour
the job, make the most of it and share the happiness with my colleagues.

UEFA.com: You have refereed a lot of these players before. Does that help you?

Proença:
Luckily I have met a lot of the players over the years during UEFA
competitions and, of course, football has a universal language. The
behaviour of people of latin heritage is a bit different and we have a
body language that makes us understand each other. I understand players'
behaviour and the players understand the referee's behaviour. From this
point of view it will be a bit easier for me.

UEFA.com: What does it mean for a Portuguese man to referee the final?

Proença:
At the moment we represent the quality of Portuguese refereeing and I
hope tomorrow we prove it on the pitch. It shows the work we Portuguese
have been doing all this time. I feel satisfied and I know this feeling
is shared by every Portuguese referee. I'll represent Portugal tomorrow.

UEFA.com: Can you explain a little bit about what you need from your assistants?

Proença:
The referee is just the face of a team and I couldn't do anything if I
didn't have these fantastic men with me. They're the ones who, at the
end of the day, give me support and the confidence to decide what's
best. Tomorrow is a prize which will be shared by many people, but most
of all, by the people who will be with me on the pitch, these four
fantastic men.

UEFA.com: What are your thoughts on UEFA EURO 2012 so far?

Proença:
It has been fantastic. I really want to highlight the behaviour of
every athlete and every player. They have shown extraordinary fair play.
This shows the respect they have for the fans, the crowd and the people
who watched them on TV. Unity and respect, which I think people
deserve, was conveyed by players.